Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart is not just a story telling of Africa before a slow colonization took over, but it also takes its time to criticize the dominant view so heavily imposed throughout history. The history books are written by the victors in a war, and the British were somewhat the victorious party in this exchange. However, every story has two sides to it and Achebe's story will "challenge the definitions and assumptions" of both the reader and the writer (Cultural Studies 232). By attaching a post-colonial viewpoint onto an analysis of the story, readers and critics are able to see that the viewpoints are historically designed to be subjective in some shape, thus making reality a "social construct".
The hegemony sets the tone for a culture or group and people will unknowingly or willingly revolve their lives around this single pillar of standards. Society has defined such a thing as normal, but if someone were to oppose the standard how would they go about doing it? It is the minority's voice that brings a different perspective to the scenario and often makes others realize that there is more than one side to a story. If a light is cast, then somewhere in the infinite distance a shadow must also be created. That shadow, no matter how tiny it is, will always exist despite it being smothered by the need to conform. In an attempt to prove this, scrutinizing research and bodies of text while wearing a cap of postcolonial thought will be needed. The quest will be short and simple: How does post-colonial theory contrast and fight against a hegemony? The answer, however, will not be short and simple.
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